Home / Frost line depth / Missouri
Frost data
Frost line depth in Missouri
The short answer
Missouri publishes no single statewide frost depth. Missouri has no mandatory statewide building code at all, so the frost figure is whatever your city adopted, and it varies from roughly a foot in the bootheel to about two feet up north. Footings have to bear below that depth, and a water service line has to sit at least six inches below it and at least twelve inches down, which in Missouri works out to a minimum of 12 inches. Source: Missouri Public Service Commission, 2016 State of Missouri Frost Depth Map.
Missouri is a home-rule state on construction codes, which means there is no state table to consult and no statewide requirement to adopt one. Springfield’s adoptive ordinance for the 2018 IRC fills its frost line cell with 24 inches. The Missouri Public Service Commission publishes a frost-depth reference map for manufactured-housing installers that runs from about 25 inches north of Highway 36 down to 12 inches south of Interstate 44.
That PSC map is a useful orientation and a poor permit document. It was drawn for a specific regulatory purpose and it is not the figure your building department will hold you to. Treat it as the shape of the state and get the number from the office issuing the permit.
The practical consequence for plumbing shows up on the Kansas City side. A shallower frost line than Iowa or Minnesota means service lines closer to the surface, and Missouri winters still deliver hard freezes, so the margin between the buried line and the frost front is thinner here than farther north.
By jurisdiction
What Missouri jurisdictions publish
With no statewide figure, these are the depths real building departments have published.
| Jurisdiction | Frost depth | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Springfield, MO (city ordinance) | 24 in | City of Springfield 2018 IRC Adoptive Ordinance, Table R301.2(1) Fro… |
| Missouri, north of Hwy 36 (state agency reference map) | 25 in | Missouri Public Service Commission 2016 Frost Depth Map |
| Missouri, south of I-44 (state agency reference map) | 12 in | Missouri Public Service Commission 2016 Frost Depth Map |
These are the jurisdictions whose published figure we could read and verify, so it isn’t a complete list of Missouri building departments. Yours may differ, and yours is the one that governs your permit.
The weather behind the number
When it freezes in Missouri
NOAA 1991 to 2020 normals at representative stations across the state.
| Station | First 32°F | First 28°F | First 20°F | Last 32°F | Nights below 20°F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAPE GIRARDEAU MUNI AP | October 25 | November 4 | December 1 | April 5 | 22 |
| COLUMBIA RGNL AP | October 29 | November 6 | November 27 | April 7 | 35 |
| JOPLIN REGIONAL AIRPORT | October 27 | November 4 | November 27 | April 9 | 25 |
| MARSHALL | October 24 | November 3 | November 25 | April 10 | 44 |
| ST LOUIS SPRT OF S L AP | October 23 | November 3 | November 26 | April 12 | 33 |
| TARKIO | October 15 | October 25 | November 13 | April 19 | 59 |
Dates are the median: half of years cross that threshold earlier, half later. “no normal” means NOAA publishes none for that station, which at a warm station means it does not reliably get that cold. Source: NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals, 1991-2020, retrieved 2026-09-09.
Across all 171 Missouri stations with published normals, the median first 32°F night falls around October 24 and the median station records 38 nights a year below 20°F, which is the coldest threshold NOAA counts and a decent proxy for a hard freeze rather than a light frost. The state’s spread runs from STEELVILLE 2 N, where the median first freeze is October 8, to CARUTHERSVILLE at November 9.
The median Missouri station crosses freezing around 24 October and logs roughly 38 nights a year below 20°F, about half what Iowa sees one state north. The state stretches far enough that Caruthersville in the bootheel does not reach its median first freeze until 9 November, five weeks after Steelville in the Ozarks. Kansas City, which sits at the cold end of the state’s range, is where our burst pipe repair cost page is pitched.
Water lines
Burial depth for a water service line in Missouri
Missouri has no mandatory statewide residential code or plumbing amendment; the IRC/UPC baseline (below the frost line and not less than 12 inches below grade) applies as locally adopted, with actual required depth varying by jurisdiction (e.g., 24 inches in Springfield).
Under the model rule that Missouri works from, a water service line goes Water service pipe shall be installed not less than 12 inches (305 mm) deep and not less than 6 inches (152 mm) below the frost line.
which puts the floor here at 12 inches. 2021 International Residential Code, Section P2603.5 (Freezing), ICC free code viewer. Your water utility may specify more for the portion of the service it owns, and the building department that issues the permit has the final say. The national picture is on how deep water lines are buried.
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Common questions
Missouri frost line questions
How deep is the frost line in Missouri?
There is no statewide figure. Springfield adopts 24 inches in its own ordinance, and the Missouri Public Service Commission’s reference map for manufactured housing shows roughly 25 inches in the north of the state and 12 inches in the south. Your building department sets the number that applies to your permit.
Does Missouri have a statewide building code?
Not a mandatory one for residential construction. Cities and counties adopt and amend codes on their own, which is why the frost figure, the permit requirements and the inspection process all differ between St. Louis, Kansas City and a rural county. It also means an unincorporated area may have no building permit process at all, in which case there is no adopted frost depth to look up and the model-code minimums are the only guide.
Next
Where to go from here
The frost depth is the digging number. It won’t tell you whether your pipes are at risk this winter, and the two pages that will are at what temperature pipes freeze and when pipes freeze where you live, both with a ZIP lookup. If a pipe has already split, burst pipe repair cost covers the repair and the water damage behind it, and what to do about a frozen pipe is the page to open first.
Local cost pages in Missouri: Burst pipe repair in Kansas City, Sump pump installation in Kansas City, Drain cleaning in Kansas City.
Other state pages: Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Virginia, Wisconsin, and all fifty in the national table.
Where these numbers come from
The Missouri frost figure was researched against the body that publishes it, and it’s recorded with a confidence note of “local only, varies” in our source ledger. Freeze dates are NOAA normals for stations in the state, picked by a fixed rule rather than by hand: first-order stations, spread west to east. The full method is on our methodology page.
- Freeze dates and cold-night counts: NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals, 1991 to 2020, annual and seasonal by station. Retrieved 2026-09-09. Field definitions are in the by-variable readme.
- ZIP code locations: U.S. Census Bureau 2023 ZIP Code Tabulation Area gazetteer, matched to the nearest station by great-circle distance.
- Missouri Public Service Commission, 2016 State of Missouri Frost Depth Map The Missouri frost depth figure and basis.
- City of Springfield, MO, 2018 IRC Adoptive Ordinance (Table R301.2(1)) The Missouri frost depth figure and basis.
- 2021 International Residential Code, Section P2603.5 (Freezing), ICC free code viewer The water service line burial rule.
The full method, including how we pick a station and what we do when there is not one close enough, is on our methodology page.
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